CRUSTmas

today is friday, december 25th.

christmas. in spain! i am currently preparing a special christmas meal that consists of mashed potatoes, serrano ham wrapped asparagus, and cookies. like three kinds of cookies. and im drinking a mimosa. AND i am listening to 'last christmas' by wham, and also to mariah carry sing 'all i want for christmas' ON REPEAT.

this christmas has been delicious. i have nothing better to do than eat, shop for food, buy wine, and cook. and eat. i shot a little video of my christmas festivities. i found some rad flamenco christmas music, and then you can also see the organic polverones of which ive been partaking every hour on the hour, for good luck(i just made that up). i miss everyone, and i love christmas...

in bed with my slippers on

today is sunday,
december 20th.

its so cold! it snowed for about 12 hours yesterday, but theres still not that much snow on the ground. eric told me that i had to go to the show last night, even though it was like 30 degrees outside and the venue was like a 25 minute walk from my house. but im so glad i did, a fricken awesome band played called eskorbutines. i saw the flyer and i figured it had something to do with eskorbuto, but i wasnt positive cause i couldnt find anything about them online. which makes sense, because cover bands shouldnt have myspaces.s so it ended up being an eskorbuto cover band, and they were SO rad, i mean you cant really go wrong playing 45 minutes worth of eskorbuto songs. i didnt know it, but eskorbuto is from pais vasco, so now i totally understand why they are so popular here (well other than the fact that they are AWESOME). so yes, i had fun, thanks eric for telling me to do stuff i dont want to do, cause sometimes its super fun.

so i just finished reading that book you see up there. it was super good, and super gnarly and graphic and stuff. but i really enjoyed it, and now i want to read more bukowski stuff. i really like when people illustrate the works of great writers, and the illustration in this book is that kinda dirty looking scary kind of illustration that i love. i always want to compare everything to kevins illustration, but it kinda reminded me of ... kevins illustration.

last week this random duder was staying at my house, and we took a picture in front of rivendell cause we're DORKS. 'tis my new favorite place.

birthrite weekend

today is monday, december 14th.

i had a wonderful birthday weekend. eric came from san sebastian, and dahara came from madrid. i bought myself a burnt egg yoke cake that tasted like whipcream toasted marshmellows, deelish. dahara made me eat a whole can of pringles, then a whole bag of toothbrush shapped gummy candy. deelish. eric got me some slippers, which is fricken rad cause i didnt have any, and it has started to snow.

they totally loved vitoria-gasteiz, which is really exciting, because that means everyone else who comes to visit will probably love it too. i took them to eat hot toasted baguette sandwiches, we went to el abuelos (the rock n roll bar), we ate fried potatoes, we slept till 1pm two days in a row, and we also went to a new bar that i hadn't been to before. a metal bar. there are like 7 metal bars here in vitoria, but this one is special. this ones called rivendell. yes, RIVENDELL. i am leaving it at that, and if you understand the significance of this name, i love you forever. the ultra metal bartender/owner totally loved us, and he poured us blue hawaii shots. cause thats what metal dudes drink, blue shots that taste like bubblegum. he also gave us a cd of his band, Hard Rock Sound, and showed us a video on his cell phone of him doing some medieval battle-ry with his chainmail on. DEWD. SO RAD. haha. we had a wonderful weekend.

in other birthday related news: kyle sent me a fabulous mix tape with no track list, my mom sent me her top 'aint it cool news' nerdom picks, a letter arrived from kaitlin just in time from costa rica, i bought a ticket to rome with the dough i received from my grandparents, and matt purchased his ticket to meet me there. wowzers, i mean, he didnt specifically buy it as a birthday present to me, but im going to pretend he did. dude, i say it counts as a birthday present, and christmas present, and new years gift, and an easter present. for the next ten fricken years! geez thanks matt, all i got you was one lousy bottle of gundam flavored ketchup. and a baby tiger. ... jokes! i couldnt find any gundam flavored ketchup.

today on my walk home from work, it was snowing like crazy. its cold, and i am protesting going outside. and its not even winter yet! can you see the snow? is it possible to take a picture of snow falling? do the people i pass on the sidewalk think im crazy when im taking pictures of air? yeeeeesss.

thanks for the sweet hawaiian melodies kyle, theyz warmz the heartz.

simple pleasures

today is thursday, december 10.

1 day until i am 1/4 of a century old. rad. yesterday i received 4 letters and a postcard, but i am being a good girl and waiting till tomorrow to open them.

last week i was feeling kinda defeated, and what better way to restore my spirit than to go shopping? unfortunately, there arent many places here in spain that sell used things. its just not really part of the culture. people hold on to their stuff forever, and when someone dies, they divide it up and keep everything for another 50 years. it kinda makes thrift store shopping more challenging, but i can dig it because i have nothing but time on my hands. and when you do find something rad, its just that much more gratifying. so last week, i found two new pairs of shoes, a bow, and a puzzle of the incredible hulk.

something else that keeps me excited, and helps me to get out of bed everyday before noon (instead of just sleeping till 2, cause you know i totally could): i have an advent calendar! it was only 75cents and its from germany. my favorite plastic/chocolate flavored image so far? a chocolate squirrel!

mmm, squirrels...

untitled

today is december 2, and i cant think of anything to say!

im not sure if its because i am being boring, or if its that there really is nothing going on. today was the last day of my work week? thats pretty exciting, if not for you, then at least for me. now i have a six-day weekend, because next monday and tuesday are school holidays. luckily im a grown-up and i receive a salary, because if they only paid me for the days i actually worked, well then we'd all be in trouble. this is probably the first and only time i will say this in my life, but i kinda wish it wasnt a holiday. i mean in my normal life i LOVE not working, but this is not my normal life, and i am not feeling normal. school holidays not only leave me with nothing to do (but eat/get fat at home), i also kinda like working. its kinda fun. my students are hilarious, and they are the closest thing i have to friends. they make me laugh, they talk shit to me in spanish, and they all want to say hi to me in the hallway-its like being popular or something. today we had to read a passage from Bram Stoker's Dracula. then we talked about vampires, and about Interview with the Vampire, and about Twilight. its awesome because there are a few goth/weird arty girls in my classes who are totally me when i was in high school. except they are shy! (i was a frickin' firecracker when i was in highschool) its so sweet they are so totally typically the 'weird girls'; they all have died black hair and wear too much black eye makeup, and of course they were the ones who were way into all the vampire talk. ha most of the class hadnt even heard of Interview with the Vampire, but one of the girls is totally like 'oh yeah i love anne rice. lestat is such a babe' well she didnt actually know how to say he 'is a babe', but i totally taught her, cause he totally IS. so yup. i like what i am doing. sometimes its super hard and frustrating, and i stand in front of the class and ask a question 7 times and everyone just stares at me and doesn't say a word. and sometimes i feel like a moron because i cant explain something well, or no one understands me, or i am trying to teach and no one gives a fuck about what i am saying. and other times, out of nowhere, its really gratifying. sometimes i know ive really helped them understand something, and sometimes i can tell they are really trying. i just want them to have confidence in themselves, and i want them to leave class feeling good about their abilities and about who they are. and sometimes they do. and on those days i leave work with a smile on my face, because i feel like ive been a positive influence in my students lives. it makes me feel real.